14.3 | Trifler's Room

town air makes people free

During the 12th Century, it became legal custom for any unfree persons ("bondspeople") to become free of their former employers' authority after having lived in a town for "a year and a day". Hence the saying "Town air makes people free". But to be accepted as a citizen of a town, people were also required to practice a profession or a trade, because far from being bestowed upon just anyone, civil rights were reserved strictly to the hard-working